England will play T20Is in January 2022 and will then play Tests in March.
The England cricket team will now play 2 more T20Is and an extra Test against the home side when they travel to the Caribbean islands next year.
West Indies are supposed to host England from January 2022 for a two-format bilateral series. The series will commence on January 28 with the five T20Is that will go on till February 5. After a multi-day practice game, England will face the West Indian cricket team in three Tests from March 8 to March 28.
The Test series will be played for the ‘Richards-Botham trophy’, which has been named in honour of the two greats of the game – Sir Viv Richards and Sir Ian Botham.
A release from Cricket West Indies (CWI) read, “(The trophy is) named in honour of West Indies' batting icon Sir Vivian Richards and England's great all-rounder Lord Botham. The new trophy pays tribute to the two legends whose rivalry and friendship embodies the close relationship and mutual respect between the two sides.”
The chairman of CWI, Ricky Skerritt, was happy with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) extending the tour which will also help their tourism economy. He also revealed that CWI and ECB might get together for a few cricket development programs in the future.
Skerritt said, “This expansion of next year's England tour to the Caribbean is welcome news for West Indies Cricket and for the region's tourism economy. It has come about because of the special relationship that has been developed between our respective boards.”
“We are looking forward to working with ECB Chair Ian Watmore, and CEO Tom Harrison, to expand our partnership even further into new areas of cooperation and support. We have already begun discussions on how the ECB can help us in our development programs and I am pleased that ECB has been showing so much appetite and goodwill to assist,” he added.
Ian Whatmore is also looking forward to engage with CWI and help them as they were the first team to travel after international cricket resumed in July 2020.
Whatmore said, “We hugely appreciated the support of Cricket West Indies, and all its men's and women's players, in helping us host a full season of international cricket in the summer of 2020.
Following the conclusion of those tours to England we have been in discussions with CWI to understand how we can best support them moving forward and one way was to extend our existing England men's tours to the Caribbean in 2022.”
(With inputs from Cricbuzz)